My Health Record is Australia’s national digital health record system. All Australians have a My Health Record, unless you choose not to have one.

If your child has attended a NSW public health service,  a summary of their health information will be sent to  your child’s My Health Record. NSW public health staff may also view, and send information to, your child’s  My Health Record.

If your child has a My Health Record, but you do not wish for your child’s information from a particular doctor’s appointment or hospital visit to be included in their  My Health Record, you must inform the health provider  at the beginning of your child’s visit. 

For further information about My Health Record, phone 1800 723 471, or visit myhealthrecord.gov.au 

To provide your child with appropriate treatment, we may collect a range of health information about your child.  

This may include information about their health, pathology and diagnostic test results, x-ray and other imaging, and information about their medication. 

We collect health information directly from you wherever possible. If this is not possible, or in an emergency, we may refer to your child’s previous health records, other health care providers and your child’s My Health Record. 

We may also need to collect information from a parent, family member, friend, carer or other person such as an interpreter who can help us to provide your child with appropriate health care.

When you browse this website, we automatically record the following information:

• the IP (Internet Protocol) address of the machine which has accessed it
• your top-level domain name (for example .com, .gov, .edu, .au, .uk etc.)
• the address of your server
• the date and time of your visit to the site
• the pages accessed and documents downloaded
• the previous site visited
• the type of browser, device and operating system you have used.

Only sessional cookies are used from this website to collect information. This means once you finish using the website no information is kept.

The information we collect during each visit is aggregated with similar logged information and published in reports in order for the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network to identify patterns of usage of the site. This helps us to improve the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network website and the services we offer.

We do not disclose or publish information that identifies individual machines, or potentially identifies sub-groupings of addresses, without consent or otherwise in accordance with the Privacy and Personal Information Protection Act 1988.

Exceptions to this rule

Sydney Children's Hospitals Network will collect, use and disclose more extensive information than stated above in the following circumstances:

• unauthorised attempts to access files which are not published Sydney Children's Hospitals Network pages;
• unauthorised tampering or interference with files published on the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network site;
• unauthorised attempts to index the contents of the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network site by other sites;
• attempts to intercept messages of other users of the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network site;
• communications which are defamatory, abusive, vilify individuals or groups or which give rise to a suspicion that an offence is being committed; and
• attempts to otherwise compromise the security of the web server, breach the laws of the State of New South Wales or Commonwealth of Australia or interfere with the enjoyment of the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network site by other users.

Sydney Children's Hospitals Network reserves the right to make disclosures to relevant authorities where the use of the Sydney Children's Hospitals Network site raises a suspicion that an offence is being, or has been, committed. In the event of an investigation, Sydney Children's Hospitals Network will provide access to data to any law enforcement agency that may exercise a warrant to inspect our logs.

Your child’s health information may be used by the NSW public health service, or disclosed outside the health service, to enable appropriate care and treatment to be provided to you. 

For example, their information may be used or disclosed to

• other health services, hospitals or medical specialists involved in your child’s health care
• your nominated GP, including information provided with your child’s discharge referral documents
• the Ambulance Service of NSW
• My Health Record
• contact you at home regarding follow-up appointments
• your carer to assist with your child’s care.
• contact you for feedback on the services your child has received. to pastoral care workers, including hospital chaplains, providing spiritual and pastoral care
• students and other staff for training purposes
• other health services and authorised third parties to help prevent a serious and imminent threat to someone’s life, health or welfare, such as in an emergency.
• for purposes relating to organ or tissue donation.  This may include next of kin contact details.
• for operational and management activities, including funding, planning, safety and quality improvement
• investigate a complaint or incident
• manage a legal action or claim brought by the patient against the health service.

If you do not wish for us to collect, use or  disclose certain information about your child,  you will need to tell your child’s health care team. We will discuss with you any consequences  this may have for your child’s health care.

The law also allows or requires your health information  to be disclosed to other third parties, for example: 

• to State and Commonwealth government agencies for statutory reporting purposes (such as to report infectious diseases, cancer and other notifiable diseases), to report births and deaths, and to provide Medicare details.
• researchers for public interest research projects,  as approved by a Human Research Ethics Committee
• other health services or law enforcement agencies, such as the police, if you provide us with information relating to a serious crime, including serious assault, domestic violence or child abuse
• other agencies where the information relates to the safety, welfare or wellbeing of a child or young person
• to comply with a subpoena or search warrant where a child’s health information is required as evidence in court.

Information collected is stored in Australia in an appropriately secure format as required by law and held for archival purposes. 

When the information is no longer required for the purposes for which it was collected it is deleted.

Young people are able to make decisions about their  health if medical staff think they are mature enough to  fully understand their health problems and the treatment options. There is no fixed age for this, but it is usually about 14 years of age. 

In most circumstances, medical staff will encourage  young people to involve their parent or carer. Children  aged 16 years and over have the right to ask for their information independently. 

See accessing your child's health record. 

You are entitled to request access to your child’s health information held by SCHN. Normally you will be asked to apply for access in writing and provide identification. You may be charged a fee if you request copies of your health record. 

We respond to requests for access to information as soon as possible, and in most cases within than 28 days. Access to your information may be declined in special circumstances, such as where giving access would put you, another person or your child at risk of mental or physical harm. 

If you believe the information we hold about you or your child is incorrect or an error has been made, please let us know and we will correct it or add a notation to your child’s health record. 

Go to requesting access to your information

When personal information no longer required, we destroy or delete it in a secure manner, according to regulations outlined by Administrative Functions Disposal Authority (AFDA). 

In using our website, you are entitled to expect that any information as a result of that use will be treated within the terms of the New South Wales government's privacy responsibilities and obligations.

We provide electronic feedback forms for the Sydney Children's Hospital, Randwick, and The Children's Hospital at Westmead to allow you to comment on our services.

Users may provide personal details for the purpose of receiving a reply to their feedback. This information will only be used for the purpose for which it was provided. We will not add your email address or name to any mailing list. Sydney Children's Hospitals Network may publish aggregated information about feedback on the website, but it will not identify, or be able to be used to identify individual users.

HealtheNet is a secure state-wide electronic record used by the NSW public health service.HealtheNet contains a summary of the patient's health information, for example, discharge summaries, pathology and diagnostic test results and medication information.

This summary information will be available to clinical staff at any public health service in NSW via HealtheNet.

Under our shared care model for provision of care to children, Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (SCHN)  is able to access pathology and diagnostic results relevant to your child’s care held by The Children’s Hospital at Westmead (CHW) Pathology, which is a centre of excellence for NSW.

This may include results requested from CHW Pathology by other public and private health care providers. Our ability to access this information ensures we are able to provide the best health care we  can for your child.

If you, or someone on your behalf, provide us with a copy of your child’s NDIS Plan or other NDIS documents, we may use or disclose this information for purposes related to your child’s health care and social services. 

This may include sharing information with other government agencies, private sector or non-government organisations to help health and non-health services meet your child’s needs.

It is important to respect the privacy of other families at the hospitals and to provide care for your child only. 

If another child needs help, please call a member of the nursing staff.

You may wish to take photographs, video footage or write about your child’s hospital journey.

We ask that you are mindful of the privacy of others and do not include staff, patients and other families in your footage without their consent.

Staff may ask you to stop taking photographs or video footage of your child if it impacts on their work, privacy, or the privacy of others.

Anyone who wishes to take photographs or video footage at the hospital for publication in the media must first seek permission from the hospital’s Public Relations department on (02) 9382 1983 at Randwick or (02) 7825 3364 at Westmead. 

If you require assistance with contacting the above services or require translation, please call the Translating and Interpreting Service (TIS) on 13 14 50.

For a privacy information leaflet in other languages, visit the Multicultural Health Communication Service at mhcs.health.nsw.gov.au.